The latest in politics and policy.
Direct to your inbox.
Sign up for the Evening Report newsletter
96
<!–
{beacon}
NEW LAWSUIT THREATS, legal moves, bombshell reports and allegations dropped Friday, as the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein consumed Washington for another day.
President Trump’s move to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the Epstein grand jury transcripts was met with mixed reactions, as the White House sought to quell outrage from some of Trump’s allies seeking full transparency.
Bondi said she’d move immediately to release the transcripts, after some on the MAGA right expressed doubt about a Department of Justice (DOJ) report stating Epstein did not keep a “client list.”
The surprise move came after a Wall Street Journalreport alleged Trump sent a “bawdy” birthday card to Epstein for his 50th birthday with a cryptic message and drawing of a naked woman. Trump denies the story and says he will sue the paper.
Democrats — and some Republicans, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — say the grand jury transcripts aren’t enough. They’re calling on Bondi to release all the government’s files on Epstein, including FBI witness interviews.
Trump’s attacks on those seeking full transparency have only fanned the flames of speculation.
Democrats, who once dismissed the Epstein saga as a conspiracy theory, are now demanding full transparency.
“We need total disclosure of the complete file, redacting only the names and the identities of the minor victims,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on MSNBC. “There is overwhelming bipartisan, popular demand, Congressional demand, to release all of this stuff.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) accused the Trump administration of sitting on Epstein’s bank records.
“They’re refusing to investigate,” Wyden posted on X.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he received information that Bondi “pressured” the FBI to comb through the Epstein files to flag any mention of Trump.
The Washington Post reports that “no credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes.”
“Rest assured — if Trump were prominently mentioned, it would have been leaked by now,”the Post’s fact checker wrote.
Trump said over social media that Democrats would have already released the Epstein files if there was a “smoking gun” implicating him in Epstein’s crimes.
Some Republicans rolled their eyes at what they described as political opportunism by Democrats.
“[Democrats] never asked about it — they tried to hide from it,” former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “[Trump] didn’t hide from this — he had the authorities investigate this.”
TRUMP VS. WSJ
The Wall Street Journal added new dimension to the story with a buzzed-about report claiming that Epstein got a birthday card from Trump with an imaginary conversation between the two and a nude drawing of a woman.
“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” read the letter allegedly bearing Trump’s signature, according to the Journal.
Trump denied the story: “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
The president threatened to sue the paper and its controlling owner, Rupert Murdoch.
“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ,” Trump posted on social media. “That will be an interesting experience!!!”
Vice President Vance said the Journal never showed them the alleged note before running the story.
“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bulls—,” he posted on X. “The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it.”
DEMS RAGE AT COLBERT CANCELLATION
Democrats are demanding answers after CBS announced it would cancel“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
The network said the decision was purely “financial,” seeking to head-off allegations it was removing a prominent Trump critic from the airwaves for political reasons.
Democrats saw the move as the latest capitulation by CBS’s parent company Paramount Global, which recently settled a $16 million lawsuit with Trump over how a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Harris was edited.
Paramount is seeking approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission for its merger deal with entertainment giant Skydance.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s big, fat bribe,” Colbert quipped on his show earlier this month.
“The Late Show” took on a more political bent when Colbert took over for David Letterman in 2015. Colbert frequently gave straight-to-camera warnings about Trump, while his show became a regular venue for Democrats.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was a guest on the show Thursday night, where the crowd erupted in cheers after he looked into the camera and told the president to “piss off.”
“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know,”Schiff posted on X.
Former President Biden’s assistant Annie Tomasini refused to answer questions Friday during closed-door testimony about Biden’s mental acuity and handling of classified records while he was in office.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tomasini pleaded the Fifth when GOP lawmakers asked if anyone instructed her to lie about Biden’s health or if she assisted in concealing classified records found in Biden’s home.
“It’s unbelievable that Ms. Tomasini and others refuse to answer basic questions about President Biden’s fitness to serve,” Comer said in a statement. “It’s apparent they would rather hide key information to protect themselves and Joe Biden than be truthful with the American people about this historic scandal. There needs to be transparency and accountability, and we will continue to pursue the truth and examine options to get the answers we need.”
Former first lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff Anthony Bernal and Kevin O’Connor, the former president’s longtime doctor, both pleaded the Fifth under similar questions from the committee earlier this month.
MEANWHILE…
President Trump on Friday will sign legislation rescinding $9 billion in previously approved government funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, after the clawbacks made the difficult journey through the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
“We’re gonna downsize the scope of government,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said after the vote. “Government is too large, it does too many things and it does almost nothing well.”
The big headline from the rescissions effort is that the government will cut off funds to PBS and NPR, which Republicans have long castigated as having a liberal agenda.
The White House plans to send further rescission requests to Congress, but those could be met by GOP opposition, as Republican senators warn the Executive Branch not to intrude on Congress’ power of the purse.
Democrats are already threatening a government shutdown in September over the clawbacks, saying there’s no point in passing bipartisan funding bills if Republicans will strip spending out of them in partisan votes further down the line.
“We worked hard,” Trump said to cheers at the signing ceremony in the East Room.
Republican leaders struggled to keep their caucuses in line to pass both pieces of legislation, underscoring how chaos has become the norm in the GOP-led House, even in victory.
“I’m so tired of getting phone calls at two, three, four o’clock in the morning,” Trump quipped.
“After uniting in stunning fashion earlier this month to pass the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” and celebrating the win, Republicans plunged back into disarray this week when a cohort of hardline conservatives tanked a procedural vote over a trio of cryptocurrency bills, bringing the floor to a screeching halt. The intra-party dispute — complete with a public floor rebellion and record-setting vote, a White House visit and hours of closed-door negotiations — underscored that chaos is a mainstay of the razor-thin House GOP majority that not even Trump can stamp out.”
And The Hill’s Alexander Boltonwrites that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the former Senate majority leader who is retiring next year, has become a wild card since ceding his leadership post.
“The crafty veteran senator has used high-profile dissenting votes and carefully timed statements to make his influence felt throughout the Senate GOP conference and to signal when he thinks Trump — and by extension, Trump’s allies in Congress — are moving in the wrong direction.”
McConnell this week voted against two critical procedural motions to advance the rescissions package.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday defended renovations to two Federal Reserve buildings in Washington, which have become a central point of focus for senior Trump administration officials agitating for Powell to be removed from his post.
In a letter to White House budget adviser Russ Vought, Powell said the estimated $2.5 project “is large in scope because it involves the renovation of two historic buildings on the National Mall that were first constructed in the 1930s.”
“While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed,” Powell wrote. “Both buildings were in need of significant structural repairs and other updates to make the buildings safe, healthy and effective places to work, including the removal of asbestos and lead contamination, replacement of antiquated systems such as electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as fire detection and suppression systems.”
Powell said the project has received appropriate oversight and approvals along the way from the Federal Reserve Board, the independent Inspector General and the National Capital Planning Commission, among others.
Vought unloaded on Powell this week, saying there had been $700 million in cost overruns. Administration officials have called for an investigation.
Trump has considered firing Powell, angered over the central bank chief’s refusal to lower interest rates.
Republicans say the president doesn’t have the authority to fire the Federal Reserve chairman.
“He’s not going to fire Jay Powell, and I don’t believe he can fire Jay Powell,”said Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
Powell’s term expires in early 2026 but Democrats fear the Trump administration is laying the groundwork to oust Powell over the building renovations.
• New home construction ticked up in June after hitting a five-year low in May — the lowest level since the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Elevated interest rates and regional zoning laws have weighed on the housing sector.
• Trump swore in former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Friday.
When Long was in Congress, he sponsored legislation to abolish the IRS.
